SYDNEY: Western Sydney Wanderers may be forced to play their AFC Asian Champions League final leg away from their home ground to accommodate huge interest in their bid to become the first Australian winner, the team’s coach said on Thursday.

Their 22,000-seater Parramatta Stadium will likely be deemed unsuitable to cater for the large crowd expected for the home first leg against Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal on October 25.

Wanderers, who would be the first Australian team to win Asian football’s showpiece, are fighting to keep the game out of one of Sydney’s far bigger grounds and at Parramatta, where they thrive in an intimidating atmosphere generated by vociferous supporters.

“Our preference, of course, is to stay at Parramatta, but if the AFC decides otherwise and it gets taken out of our hands we’ll play wherever we have to,” Wanderers coach Tony Popovic said.

The Wanderers joined Adelaide United as only the second Australian team to reach the ACL final after beating last year’s runners-up FC Seoul 2-0 at home on Wednesday after a scoreless first leg in South Korea.

The Wanderers have had to battle through to the Champions League final out of season, with the new A-League campaign kicking off only on October 10.

“It’s a good headache to have,” Popovic said. “We’re in the final of the Champions League and we have to work around it.”

It is yet another achievement from the ambitious club, which in only two years of existence has made back-to-back A-League grand finals and now is into the ACL final.

“It’s up there with the very best things we’ve achieved but now we want to win it,” Popovic said.

“Not just for us but for Australian football. Everyone will know who the Wanderers are and also, more importantly, everyone will take notice of the A-League.”

Should the Wanderers beat Al Hilal, they will become the first Australian men’s team, club or country, to claim silverware in Asia.

They will also qualify for the bounty of the Fifa Club World Cup in Morocco in December, alongside Spanish giants Real Madrid and Copa Libertadores champions San Lorenzo.

FC Seoul coach Choi Yong-Soo praised Wanderers’ defence.

“They [Wanderers] were very competitive and they have quality,” he said. “Defensively and up front they are very well organised ... now they are in the final and I would like to see them as champions.”

Western Sydney’s achievement met with praise from rival A-League clubs.

“Having been in the AFC Champions League over the past few years with our club we appreciate the challenges this great competition poses and the difficulties encountered around logistics, as well as seasons that don’t match up,” Central Coast Mariners coach Phil Moss said.

“To have beaten the reigning AFC Champions League winners and runners-up in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively is an amazing achievement and makes Wanderers worthy of their place in the final.”

The return leg will be played in Riyadh on November 1.